In 1914 Jacoba van Heemskerck began experimenting with glass in a quest to invent new uses for the material as a means of expression. By painting glass with transparent paints, she brought a “radiantly spiritual” force to her visual world that could not be achieved with conventional oils on canvas. The artist believed this technique was better able to convey the “divine principle” behind the physical world. Her designs for stained glass windows and glass mosaics were executed by Puhl & Wagner, Gottfried Heinersdorff, a Berlin company. “Composition no. 17” and “Composition no. 19” were among ten designs exhibited at the gallery Der Sturm in October 1919.